Midnight Faces

Los Angeles, California, USA

BandRockAlternative

Midnight Faces is an LA duo comprised of vocalist Phil Stancil and multi instrumentalist Matthew Doty. The band has self released two albums, Fornication (2013) & The Fire Is Gone (2014), which received critical acclaim from the likes of SPIN, VICE, NYLON, AV CLUB, and NPR. The band is currently on tour in North America supporting Secretly Canadian recording artist Electric Youth. The band is also at work on their third album with producer Aaron Espinoza (Silversun Pickups, Ben Gibbard).

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Biography

Midnight Faces is an LA duo comprised of vocalist Phil Stancil and multi instrumentalist Matthew Doty.Barely into his teens, Matthew Doty began making music with childhood friend Jonny Pierce (of The Drums), resulting in a full-length album released by Columbia Records. At age twenty, he went on to co-found post-rock instrumental giants Saxon Shore with Josh Tillman (aka Father John Misty), releasing three EPs, and two albums produced by Dave Fridmann (MGMT, Tame Impala, Flaming Lips).

To better understand what The Fire Is Gone is, please understand what it isn’t: No fancy producers, no big name special guests, no one wearing robot costumes, no all-analog studio, and no songs recorded live to tape. The non-singing half of Midnight Faces is Matthew Doty who elaborates by explaining, “We made this album by ourselves and for ourselves. We made it in my apartment on a computer one track at a time. If you dig the tunes, cool. If you don’t, that’s cool, too.” Fair enough, but there’s a damn good chance you’ll be landing in the camp of the former. The album has received critical acclaim from the likes of SPIN, NYLON, AV CLUB, andCONAN O'BRIEN.

Still, Doty asserts, “Just what L.A. needs –another fucking 80’s new wave band, right?” Well, no. But when the songs are as good as what Midnight Faces is cranking out, perhaps the listener should be the ultimate judge of that? In fact, The Fire Is Gone is an even more evolved take on the sound that Doty and vocalist Philip Stancil already had pretty damn near perfect on Fornication. “Phil and I no longer live in separate parts of the country,” Doty explains of the duo’s progression. “We were able to sit down and write together, no more file sharing.” Stancil elaborates, saying, “We hit on a lot of genres while working on this album, throwing out songs we didn’t like and re-working others to fit the mood.”